The World of Beer story on EntreCon show

June 16, 2016

/ Shannon Nickinson

/ entrecon

Scott Zepp, Co-founder and Director, World of Beer, talks with Celeste Beatty, the Founder of the Harlem
Brewing Company, about his experiences getting started in thebeer industry. Photo credit: Bruce Graner

It’s not enough to have passion for your business idea.

You need preparation, planning and perseverance.

Those are some of the lessons that World of Beer founder Scott Zepp shares in the most recent episode of “EntreCon: Helping Small Businesses Grow,” airing now on BLAB-TV. He appears with Kelly Hoegrebe, COO of the World of Beer family in Pensacola and Tampa, whose duties include training coaching and feedback.

Zepp was a speaker with Celeste Beatty of the Harlem Brewing Co. at EntreCon 2015. Zepp shared the story of starting World of Beer, which has thrived at the cornier of Intendencia and Palafox streets, and across the country.

In the episode, Zepp says he left a teaching job at Catholic High School in 2004 and went to Tampa with his co-founder and longtime friend with $7,500. As he grew more interested in the beverage industry, he found out from a mentor about loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Scott Zepp, co-founder of World of Beer, on the EntreCon show on BLAB-TV.

As his business grew, he began to get interested in craft beer.

He studied the market, learned as much as he could from mentors in the craft beer world, long before it was hip. Then he began to think about opening a business of his own.

“I just thought, ‘if there was a place you could drink beer like this wrapped around sports, live music and good people, I would hang out there all the time,” Zepp says.

Banks didn’t believe in the concept, so Zepp says he and his partner found another way — both of their parents mortgaged their homes to fund the first World of Beer in Tampa in 2007. There are now nearly 91 World of beer franchises open or soon to open across the country.

Zepp says the trademarks of the WOB experience — atmosphere, product knowledge and customer service — are tenets he and the staff hold true to as the business grows.

Zepp and Hoegrebe talk about franchising, growth and what WOB’s plans for the future are in the episode. Watch it here.

To register for EntreCon 2016, scheduled for Nov. 3-4 at the Pensacola Little Theater in downtown Pensacola, click here.